stephanie
My yoga story began when I was 10, doing the Rachel Welch Yoga tapes with my mom. Fast forward 10 years and I found myself a student at Aurora University teaching yoga to senior citizens at their retirement center as a volunteer. It was chair yoga. They seemed to enjoy the interaction and definitely felt better moving and stretching their tight bodies.
After graduating college, I began a career in television broadcasting here in Chicago, but life soon became too stressful and once again I sought out yoga. A boyfriend’s mom asked me to go to yoga with her, so once again I was excited to experience a new yoga class. She didn’t tell me it was Bikram Hot Yoga and I walked into the room and said, “Whew”, rather loudly, and everyone in the room looked at me like, what did you expect?
As I did the postures, I seemed to know which posture was coming next, I thought, “Oh, my body just moves in those directions naturally”; come to realize later, the yoga I did with my mom was Bikram Yoga.
In the Fall of 2010 I graduated from Bikram Teacher Training and began teaching and since then, I haven’t stopped practicing and teaching daily, except for when my son, Carson, was born in 2015. And that’s another story you should ask me about someday. I practiced the Original Hot Yoga through my pregnancy, so I am very knowledgeable about the pregnancy series, and I can guide pregnant students through the Original Hot Yoga series with the proper modifications.
I have taught the Original Hot Yoga series plus some additional yoga games and postures to children. The class in not heated and 60 minutes long. I teach children of all ages and children with special needs. I am also a certified Children’s Yoga Teacher.
In July 2017, l began teaching Rocket Vinyasa. I was taught the series by Gianna Purcell, the 2013 USA Yoga Champion, in a workshop in Chicago. I teach that class 2 times a week here at Saha Yoga Studio.
I have competed in the USA Yoga Organization Regionals and have coached many athletes/participants (both adult and youth divisions) for this competition.
I love helping people improve their health, reduce their pain and improve their overall quality of life. It is a very fulfilling career. I love being a Yoga teacher!